Story of a politician who embezzles millions from a charity to fund a gambling habit…. Ah! There it is down in Paragraph 13, well below the drop, after of course some paragraphs qualifying what a sympathetic person she is, and this quote: “[She] was a selfless public official who contributed much to the well-being of San Diego. However, no figure, regardless of how much good they’ve done or how much they’ve given to charity, can escape criminal liability with impunity.”

With people like Alan Grayson, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, and Sheila Jackson Lee in her caucus, Pelosi demonstrates some amazing skilz to use the words congressional dignity without breaking out into uncontrollable giggling.

==With people like Alan Grayson, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, and Sheila Jackson Lee in her caucus, Pelosi demonstrates some amazing skilz to use the words congressional dignity without breaking out into uncontrollable giggling.

The legislation is more a bargaining position than a solution. Republicans have said they will not accept any new taxes in a deal to head off the so-called sequester — across-the-board cuts to defense and domestic programs of 5 percent to 8 percent and totaling about $1 trillion over 10 years. But Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday that their party must rally support around an alternative to try to move negotiations forward.

“This bill is an important chess piece,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate…..

As the cuts approach, warnings of disaster are growing increasingly dire.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released a barrage of letters from agencies spelling out how the cuts would be meted out: 600,000 low-income women and children dropped from federal nutrition programs; meat and poultry plants forced to close because of furloughed federal inspectors; deep cuts to the poor school systems that rely most heavily on federal assistance; delayed permits for oil and gas production; and shorter seasons, reduced operating hours and possible park closings in the national park system. Job losses could reach 750,000 this year, said Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.

While Republicans and Democrats agree the cuts would be destructive, neither side seems ready to negotiate a solution.

Obviously, some of these cuts are completely idiotic, not to mention not sending a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf right now.

So what more can be done? Here is another piece of good news: there are many common sense reforms that should appeal to both Democrats and Republicans.

One example is competitive bidding. Historically, the government has effectively set prices through Medicare for wheelchairs, hospital beds and other medical equipment. But a demonstration project begun in 2011 introduced competitive bidding in roughly 100 metropolitan areas to see if market forces could bring down prices. The results have been dramatic. Prices for oxygen equipment went down 41 percent; wheelchairs, 36 percent; hospital beds, 44 percent; and the cost of diabetic testing equipment, like glucose strips, dropped by a whopping 72 percent. And research has shown no adverse effects on beneficiaries.

The Affordable Care Act will expand competitive bidding for these items to the rest of the country in 2016. But why wait? We should roll it out nationwide next year. And it shouldn’t just be for medical equipment. In his last budget, President George W. Bush recommended expanding competitive bidding for blood tests and other lab procedures. It could also work for X-rays, CT scans, pacemakers — for all medical commodities. This would drive health care spending growth closer to the increase in G.D.P.

But I am pretty sure the Congressional budget office would not score that as a budget saving, because it is after all, speculative, so it is not on the table.

Here again we come to my budget solution: tie everything to a source. People who think something will save money can tie an appropriation to it.

daley– She fits right in with the politics, values, employment history, and independent self-image of most Kentuckians- NOT. The down ticket Dems running for re-election there will love having her drag down their races while sucking all the available media air out of the room.

(Apparently Dario Franchitti did not wish to be the spouse of a politician either.)

It is hard to imagine anything that is beneath the dignity of the Political Class.
Thomas Sowell remarked that believing Menendez, or an under-age Dominican hooker, was a close call.
He was being too kind to the Senator – it’s not that close. I’m sure the hooker has standards.

Jonah Goldberg says Marie Antonette didn’t say that (which we know) buit also that taht comment made perfect sense: there was a law in france that said bakers had to see bread at a certain fiixed price, and if there was no bread, then normally more expensive things (otherwise there could be a loophole in which they wouldn’t bake the cheapest bread)